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rudedawg
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Food for thought for the pot smokers among us:
Questions
Does Smoking Marijuana Cause Lung Cancer?
August 02, 2001
Paul: I’m 60 and have been smoking marijuana for 35 years. I always thought that one joint was equivalent to three or four cigarettes, but I read an article that said one joint is equal to 100 cigarettes. What is your opinion on marijuana and lung cancer?
Dr. Dean: If you take raw marijuana, with the leaves and the stems, in other words, the way people smoke it, the cancer causing elements contained in marijuana is higher than in cigarettes. But we’re not seeing lung cancer in marijuana smokers for some reason, which says maybe it’s not the tobacco that’s causing lung cancer. (Some think that it might be a type of radioactivity in the fertilizer used to grow tobacco.)
And in countries where people smoke a lot more marijuana than in the United States, we don’t see lung cancer. A doctor in the mid-West thinks you can get mouth cancer from smoking a lot of marijuana. But we should see an epidemic at this point, considering that in your generation many people have had this habit for 30 or 40 years. And we’re just not seeing that at all.
So it is kind of a mystery. It also emphasizes the mystery of what causes lung cancer in tobacco smokers. If burning vegetable matter causes lung cancer, why are we not seeing this among marijuana smokers, especially at the ratio you describe?
We used think it was because a marijuana smoker does not smoke 20 or 40 joints a day. No one does that. A marijuana smoker might smoke a half a joint a day. So they try to make it seem worse by giving you the ratios you just told me. It depends on what you measure it by. I don’t believe smoking a joint is equal to 100 cigarettes.
Paul: I never though it was that high, but it just stopped me in my tracks.
Dr. Dean: Oh, yeah. Well, we’re not saying it’s a good thing –- clean, fresh air is what your lungs want. So there you are.
Questions
Does Smoking Marijuana Cause Lung Cancer?
August 02, 2001
Paul: I’m 60 and have been smoking marijuana for 35 years. I always thought that one joint was equivalent to three or four cigarettes, but I read an article that said one joint is equal to 100 cigarettes. What is your opinion on marijuana and lung cancer?
Dr. Dean: If you take raw marijuana, with the leaves and the stems, in other words, the way people smoke it, the cancer causing elements contained in marijuana is higher than in cigarettes. But we’re not seeing lung cancer in marijuana smokers for some reason, which says maybe it’s not the tobacco that’s causing lung cancer. (Some think that it might be a type of radioactivity in the fertilizer used to grow tobacco.)
And in countries where people smoke a lot more marijuana than in the United States, we don’t see lung cancer. A doctor in the mid-West thinks you can get mouth cancer from smoking a lot of marijuana. But we should see an epidemic at this point, considering that in your generation many people have had this habit for 30 or 40 years. And we’re just not seeing that at all.
So it is kind of a mystery. It also emphasizes the mystery of what causes lung cancer in tobacco smokers. If burning vegetable matter causes lung cancer, why are we not seeing this among marijuana smokers, especially at the ratio you describe?
We used think it was because a marijuana smoker does not smoke 20 or 40 joints a day. No one does that. A marijuana smoker might smoke a half a joint a day. So they try to make it seem worse by giving you the ratios you just told me. It depends on what you measure it by. I don’t believe smoking a joint is equal to 100 cigarettes.
Paul: I never though it was that high, but it just stopped me in my tracks.
Dr. Dean: Oh, yeah. Well, we’re not saying it’s a good thing –- clean, fresh air is what your lungs want. So there you are.
